Early life

Career as a wandmaker

"My august grandfather, Gerbold Octavius Ollivander, always called wands of [fir] 'the survivor's wand,' because he had sold it to three wizards who subsequently passed through mortal peril unscathed."

Gerbold believed that fir produced "the survivor's wand", as he had sold wands of this wood to three different wizards, each of whom found himself in mortal danger and came out unharmed. He was also fond of saying, "If you seek integrity, search first among the poplars," which his grandson Garrick found correct based on his own experience with poplar wands and their owners.[2]

During the nineteenth century, at a time when wands made of silver lime were in vogue, the wandmaker Arturo Cephalopos claimed that the wood's reputed connection with powers of Divination was "a falsehood circulated by merchants like Gerbold Ollivander, who have overstocked their workshops with silver lime and hope to shift their surplus". According to Gerbold's grandson Garrick, however, Cephalopos was "an ignoramus" who predictably went out of business.[2]